Wall St Week Ahead: Rally's stamina hangs on Europe

NEW YORK - Investors celebrated US stocks' best week in 2012 on Friday, but a cloud hangs over Wall Street, and it's what may happen in debt-plagued Europe this weekend.

Spain is expected to ask the euro zone for help with recapitalizing its banks, a deal that could ease markets' most immediate concern about the region's financial crisis.

The euro zone's deputy finance ministers will hold a conference call on Saturday to discuss the request, five senior European Union and German officials told Reuters on Friday.

At a minimum under adverse scenarios, several of Spain's banks would need about 40 billion euros or $50 billion of capital to meet core Tier 1 requirements under the Basel III standards, the International Monetary Fund said in a report released on Friday night.